Title: Industrialisation guidelines for South Africa's pebble bed modular nuclear reactor programme

Authors: Andre Buys

Addresses: Department of Engineering and Technology Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

Abstract: The industrialisation of any new technical system requires the establishment of the required industrial infrastructure and supplier base for the system. This paper presents a new methodology used for the determination of industrialisation guidelines for South Africa|s Pebble Bed Modular Nuclear Reactor (PBMR) programme. The methodology consisted of a number of steps. These were a survey of the required industrial capabilities and an audit of current domestic industrial capabilities. In the next step the strategic and operational requirements of the programme, current and future market conditions, and domestic industrial capabilities were evaluated, and the scores were combined to calculate the recommended industrialisation guidelines. There were four possible outcomes or guidelines that this methodology could produce. They were for local procurement, overseas procurement, partnership procurement, or competitive procurement. The evaluation was done by a panel of experts, using a modified Delphi technique.

Keywords: industrialisation guidelines; methodology; pebble bed modular nuclear reactors; South Africa; nuclear power plants; nuclear energy; Delphi technique.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNGEE.2007.016658

International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology, 2007 Vol.1 No.4, pp.384 - 395

Published online: 11 Jan 2008 *

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